An outbreak of sickness at Warwick Hospital caused severe staff shortages and waiting list times to grow.

The Lakin Road site was hit by a epidemic of diarrhoea and sickness last month. Staff and patients were affected.

The Willoughby ward, which treats seriously ill patients, wassobadlyaffected that replacement staff had be transferred there from elsewhere in the hospital. Hospital director Clive Walsh said: ?We had a severe staff shortage on the ward.

?Because it is so specialised it was not practical to transfer patients elsewhere. What we have done is temporarily suspend the outreach team from intensive care so they can support the Willoughby ward staff.? The outreach team works throughout the hospital looking after patients coming round after surgery.

The situation would be reviewed on March 31. Plans were in place to recruit more nurses, he added.

Sixteen nurses from the Philippines start work in mid-March. It follows the recruitment of nine nurses from India last March.

The sickness problems also caused the hospital to miss its waiting list targets last month.

The number of patients waiting for appointments was 3,467 - the target is 3,402. And the number of patients waiting more than 13 weeks for an outpatients appointment was 1,345. The target is 900.

Performance director Jayne Piech said there were other reasons apart from ill-ness, including Christmas.

A plan to transfer 200 patients to George Eliot Hospital, in Nuneaton, had also fallen through, she added.

Extra sessions were being held and she was confident the hospital would be back on target next month.

The hospital had been given extra funding by the strategic health authority to carryoutmoreappointments.

?These will take place during March, which will put additional pressure on the hospital. But it is a benefit as well.?